1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wall plate structure for receiving a HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) connector and more particularly, to a wall plate assembly that has support means adjustable to hold down the installed HDMI connector.
2. Description of the Related Art
Following fast development of high technology, advanced and sophisticated consumer electronic products are continuously created and put into market. In a house, many electric cables and connection devices may be arranged on the ceiling, wall or floor for the installation of electronic products. Arranging electric cables and connection devices on the outside of the ceiling, wall or floor destructs the sense of beauty of the house. Further, it is not safe to have electric cables and connection devices exposed to the outside. In a modern building, electric cables and connection devices are embedded in the ceiling, wall or floor, and wall plates are provided on the outside of the ceiling, wall or floor for the installation of an electronic product.
Further, following fast development of modern technology, LCD and plasma monitors and televisions are created to substitute for the early design of CRT monitors and televisions. Modern color video monitors and televisions provide high-definition, high-contrast and colorful images. Further, the number of TV channels has also been increased from the early limited number to the modern several hundred channels. Previously, one may use a video tape recorder and player to play videotapes. However, a videotape has a big size.
Further, a videotape tends to be damped to go mouldy. Therefore, VCD and DVD players are created to substitute for videotape recorders and players. A VCD or DVD player needs a signal cable to transmit audio and video signals to a television. An early design of signal cable for this purpose is a DVI (Digital Video Interleaved) compression/decompression (codec) format based on the Intel i750 chipset and used for storing video on digital media and supported through the Media Control Interface (MCI) for Windows. It is based on a VQ (vector quantization) algorithm. There are two formats: a symmetric real-time video (RTV) codec and an asymmetric production-level video (PVL). The compression ratio is within 80:1˜200:1. In actual practice, a signal cable of this format has numerous drawbacks as follows:
1. DVI format can only transmit images without sound, and speaker means must be added so that sound can be heard. The wiring of the speaker means complicates the installation.
2. During transmission of image signal through the signal cable at a distance, image signal attenuation occurs, resulting in signal instability and low video signal quality.
3. There is no means to indicate the transmission status during transmission of video signal through the signal cable. If the signal cable fails or is damaged, the user does not know the situation at once, and it will take much time and labor to examine the whole system.
4. When the connector at one end of the signal cable is connected to a wall plate, the connector suspends outside the wall plate and may be stretched away from the wall plate accidentally, interrupting signal transmission.
To eliminate the aforesaid problems, HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) format is developed.
HDMI is an all-digital audio/video interface capable of transmitting uncompressed streams. HDMI is compatible with High-bandwith Digital Content Protection (HDCP) Digital Rights Management technology. HDMI provides an interface between any compatible digital audio/video source, such as a set-top box, a DVD player, or the like and a compatible digital audio and/or video monitor, such as digital television.
HDMI supports digital video formats, such as SXGA, UXGA, SDTV and HDTV, and digital audio formats, such as CD/DVD-Audio, Dolby Digital/DTS.
A HDMI cable includes a digital audio line for multi-channel transmission. HDMI is capable of transmitting 8-channel compressed or non-compressed digital audio signals at a time, eliminating an extra sound source cable and simplifying wiring arrangement.
When comparing to DVI's 8-bit color depth, HDMI provies 10-bit˜12-bit color depth for every prime color. Further, a HDMI connector has a size about equal to a USB connector that is much smaller than a DVI connector. Similar to a regular consumer electronic video end connector, a HDMI connector is plug and ply design.
In the computer world, HDMI is already found on many peripherals and a few newer video cards, with adoption rapidly increasing.